Oklahoma governor indicators Texas-style ban on most abortions

Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed a Texas-style abortion ban that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy

By SEAN MURPHY Related Press

3 Could 2022, 23:03

• 4 min learn

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a Texas-style abortion ban on Tuesday that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of being pregnant, a part of a nationwide push in GOP-led states hopeful that the conservative U.S. Supreme Courtroom will uphold new restrictions.

“I want Oklahoma to be essentially the most pro-life state within the nation," Stitt tweeted after signing the invoice.

Stitt's signing of the bill comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation's excessive courtroom that it is contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

The invoice Stitt signed takes effect immediately together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket on Tuesday denied an emergency request to temporarily halt the invoice. Abortion providers say now that the new law is in effect, they will instantly stop providing providers for women after six weeks of pregnancy.

“Whereas the regulation is in impact, which it now could be because the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks will probably be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a workers lawyer for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket will still grant us reduction."

The brand new legislation prohibits abortions once cardiac activity might be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, earlier than many women know they are pregnant. An identical invoice permitted in Texas final 12 months led to a dramatic discount within the variety of abortions carried out in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, stated Texas' legislation that took impact in September has given their workers an concept of what a post-Roe nation may appear to be.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've regularly handled patients who are fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking break day of work, taking time out of school and taking time away from their family duties to get the care that till September 2021 they have been able to get safely and readily in their communities."

The invoice authorizes abortions if carried out as the results of a medical emergency, however there aren't any exceptions if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma invoice would permit personal citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a lady acquire an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed that mechanism to stay in place, different Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, though it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom.

Stitt earlier this year signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure isn't set to take effect till this summer, and legal specialists say it is prone to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade choice nonetheless stays the law of the land.

The number of abortions performed every year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily during the last two decades, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in accordance with data from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, before the Texas legislation was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma had been ladies from Texas.

Before the Texas ban took impact on Sept. 1, about 40 ladies from Texas had abortions performed in Oklahoma every month, the information exhibits. That number jumped to 222 Texas ladies in September and 243 in October.